Benjamin Goss

The Cartersville Express

Cartersville, Georgia

November 27, 1868, Page 2

Transcribed by:

Drowned.

On Sunday evening, the 8th instant, Mr. Benj. Goss, late a citizen of Whitfield county, Georgia, having bought land in the neighborhood of Walter Bellingsly of this county, was moving to his new home. At Cothrun’s old ferry, now May’s ferry, on the Coosa river, he crossed over his cattle, then crossed with his wagon, drawn by one horse and a mule. His wife and smaller children in the wagon. In the attempt to ascend the bank, after the boat had been landed on the opposite side of the river, the team balked and the mule refused to pull; the wagon ran back a few steps; the team was started the second time, and when about half way up the bank, the mule again refused to pull, the horse not able to hold the wagon it commenced rolling back and increased its velocity in proportion to distance. Mr. Goss got in front, holding the team by the bridles, trying to stop them. The wheel on the upper side missed the boat, the other struck the head block of the boat with such force as to bend down the stob, to which it was chained, the chain slipped off. The boat slipped out and the wagon fell back into the river, carrying the team and Mr. Goss with it, who not being a swimmer, held to the horses and was drowned. The wagon-bed not being fastened to the running gear, floated. Mr. Goss had a grown daughter, who was standing on the after part of the boat, but powerless.

The Ferryman, Bob Phillips, a freedman, threw of his coat and swam for the boat, which he reached in time to save the wagon-bed, which had floated below the boat, and was sinking, he ran it to the bank, took out the women and children and fastened the wagon-bed to the bank. By this time it was dark, Esquire May had got the news, and was on the bank with a torch-light by which he discovered the horse and wagon near the bank, a short distance below the ferry, where he had found foot hold on which to stand, the mule was still hitched to the wagon but drowned.

The last seen of Mr. Goss was about fifteen feet below the ferry landing. All the money he had, $65, was in his pocket. The articles in the wagon and the horse was saved with the wagon. The neighbors searched next day for the body of the drowned man but in vain. The bereaved family, by the liberality of generous citizens, were enabled, to make their way on to their new home, bereaved of him their main support. Alas how disconsolate their situation! But they will find a generous and kind people, in their new location, who “can feel for another’s woe” and who will give them a kind reception.